South Asia Citizens Web

Asma Jahangir is Pakistan’s best-known lawyer, pro-democracy campaigner, human rights activist, fierce critic of military regimes and the Ulema-jihadi groups. For her work and her views, Jahangir has been threatened with “dire consequences” many times. An attempt was made on her life two months back. She remains unfazed and sworn to the ideals of democracy and justice. “India and Pakistan must sign a no-war pact,” she said, speaking to Smruti Koppikar, during a brief visit to Mumbai

We would very much like to thank you for the CAG Report No. 9/2012-13 on the “Activities of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.” This is a timely and crucial report as it points out so many flaws and problems in the regulatory mechanism of the atomic energy establishment in India. The report also rightly points out the need to bring about an “empowered and independent” Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority with strength to its hands and teeth to bite.

AN OPEN LETTER TO MR MODI, CM GUJARAT
Mr Modi, I should say that after reading your statement reproduced below I was both outraged and amused. “Gujarat is by and large a vegetarian state. And secondly, Gujarat is also a middle-class state. The middle-class is more beauty conscious than health conscious — that is a challenge. If a mother tells her daughter to have milk, they’ll have a fight. She’ll tell her mother, ‘I won’t drink milk. I’ll get fat’.” The Indian Express, (…)

THE fall out of the Kokrajhar riots has become evident in the mass exodus and fear psychosis that has plagued the people of north eastern origin in cities like Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad. Newspaper reports state that over 2.5 lakh people started a homeward journey after rumours spread about retaliatory violence in the wake of the month long Kokrajhar riots. More than 4.5 lakh people fled their villages as a result of the rioting in Kokrajhar. Of these, there are estimates that more than 2.86 people remain in refugee camps in Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri districts. The scale of the displacement, of both north easterners and Muslims living in Assam has ensured that the Bodoland issue can no longer be treated merely as an assertion of the rights of one ethnic group. Rather, the debate surrounding it has come to question the cultural pluralism that has characterised the independent Indian nation since its inception. It has also pitted a linguistic and ethnic minority against a religious minority group, thus consolidating the power of the ruling classes and religious fundamentalists.

One of the most severe communal violence took place in Kandhamal in 2008 following the alleged murder of Swami Laxamananda Saraswati, a front-line leader of Sangh Parivar by the Communist Party of India (Maoists). The violence forced 55000 minority Christians to displace, 5600 homes in 415 villages were looted and burnt down, 38 persons were killed, two women were gangraped, several people were tortured, disabled. A Fact Finding Team visited 16 villages during 10th to 14th August, 2012; interviewed about fifty persons including victims, witnesses, leaders of different political and social organisations, District Collector and Superintendent of Police and reviewed various documents and records.